Fotis Kontoglou

Fotis Kontoglou was a writer, painter, and iconographer. He was born in Ayvalik, Asia Minor, around 1895. After completing his secondary education (1908–13), he moved to Athens and enrolled in the School of Fine Arts. In 1915 he interrupted his studies to travel in Europe. In Paris, where he encountered the modern art of his time, he wrote the novella "Pedro Cazas" (1920). In 1919 he returned to Ayvalik, where he was appointed a teacher at the local high school. In 1921 he took part in the Asia Minor Campaign. After the 1922 Catastrophe, he fled to Mytilene and later settled in the Kypriadou neighborhood in Athens. He worked as a writer and illustrator for the "Eleftheroudakis Encyclopedic Dictionary". In spring 1923 he visited Mount Athos for the first time, where he absorbed the lessons of Byzantine painting and iconography. That same year he published his books "The Art of Athos" and "Vasanta", exhibited together with Konstantinos Maleas at the Mytilene Gymnasium, and presented his work at the Lyceum of Greek Women in Athens. In 1925 he married Maria Hatzikambouri, and in 1927 they had a daughter, Despo (1927–2009).

He contributed to the journals "Filiki Eteria", "Ellinika Grammata", and "Nea Hestia". In the 1930s he worked as a conservator at the Byzantine Museum in Athens, the Coptic Museum in Cairo, and the Museum of Corfu. In 1932, with the assistance of Nikos Engonopoulos and Yannis Tsarouchis, he decorated the front room of his house with frescoes. In 1933 the Athens School of Fine Arts awarded him a diploma in painting, and in 1934 he participated in the Venice Biennale. The following year his book "Astrolavos" was published, illustrated by himself and Tsarouchis. Between 1937 and 1939 he painted murals of mythological and historical figures in Athens City Hall. He also painted icons and murals for private chapels and churches in Monastiraki, Rio (Patras), Liopesi, Kapnikarea, Aigaleo, Polygono, Kypseli, Kato Patissia, and Mandraki (Rhodes), while also restoring the frescoes of Mystras. In 1950 he began contributing to the newspaper "Eleftheria", writing essays that celebrated Greek tradition and denounced abstract art. A few months before his death—on 13 July 1965 in Athens—he was awarded the National Award for Letters and Fine Arts.